Sunday, March 21, 2010

World of Goo on Google

This is too funny not to post. The clever and tremendously fun puzzle game World of Goo, in one of its last levels, has a hilarious jab at the search engines, personalized search, and personalized advertising.

An excerpt from the dialogue with "MOM ... [the] Automated Search Engine Companion":

What would you like to ask MOM today?

Do I smell cookies? ... Yes! I am baking your personal information into each one.

What personal information is in your cookies? ... Cookies may contain:

Is my personal information safe with you? ... Your personal information is stored in a secure database and will never be shared with anyone** Unless they ask.** Or if someone says they are you and takes your cookies*** Or if the venture firm finds out it's profitable.**** Or if unhappy employees release copies of your cookies to other online databases.***** Or if outsourced data centers sell illegal copies of your cookies to other sites.****** Or if my parent corporation is acquired and my data including your cookies becomes part of a larger aggregate system without your knowledge or consent.

Delete my cookies ... Are you sure? ... Yes ... Your cookies have been deleted*.* Cookies may not actually be deleted.** Cookies may be stored indefinitely for evaluation and training purposes to better serve you.*** MOM knows best.

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